US strike kills dozens at Yemen migrant detention center, Yemeni officials say
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(LONDON) — An American overnight airstrike in Yemen killed at least 68 people at a migrant detention center in the Saada Governorate, according to the country’s Civil Defense organization.
Another 47 people were injured in the strike in the city of Saada, in the northwest of the country, the Yemen Civil Defense said in a statement posted to Telegram on Monday morning.
The struck center housed around 100 African migrants, the Yemen Civil Defense said. There was no immediate U.S. comment on the strike.
A statement issued by the U.S. military’s Central Command before the alleged attack on the migrants’ center was reported said its “intense and sustained campaign” since March 15 has so far struck more than 800 targets and “killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders, including senior Houthi missile and UAV officials.”
President Donald Trump’s administration intensified the U.S. airstrike campaign against Iran-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen from March 15, expanding a campaign that began under former President Joe Biden in response to Houthi attacks on commercial and military shipping and strikes on Israel.
The Houthis began their attacks in October 2023, in response to the Israeli military campaign in Gaza launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 abducted.
Central Command said its strikes “have degraded the pace and effectiveness of their attacks. Ballistic missile launches have dropped by 69%. Additionally, attacks from one way attack drones have decreased by 55%.”
“U.S. strikes destroyed the ability of Ras Isa Port to accept fuel which will begin to impact Houthi ability to not only conduct operations, but also to generate millions of dollars in revenue for their terror activities,” the statement read.
“Iran undoubtedly continues to provide support to the Houthis,” Central command continued. “The Houthis can only continue to attack our forces with the backing of the Iranian regime.”
“We will continue to ratchet up the pressure until the objective is met, which remains the restoration of freedom of navigation and American deterrence in the region,” the command said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(ROME) — Pope Francis “remained stationary” on Wednesday, “without showing any episodes of respiratory failure,” but rested peacefully overnight into Thursday, the Vatican said.
The pope, 88, received “high-flow oxygen therapy during the day, and noninvasive mechanical ventilation will be resumed during the night,” the Vatican’s press office said in its evening update.
“The Holy Father increased his respiratory physiotherapy and active motor therapy,” the Vatican’s press office, the Holy See, said. Pope Francis spent his 20th day in hospital on Wednesday in an armchair, participated in the “ritual blessing of the Holy Ashes that were imposed on him by the celebrant” and received the Eucharist, the Vatican said.
“During the morning he also called Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of the Holy Family in Gaza. In the afternoon he alternated rest with work,” the Vatican said.
(LONDON) — President Vladimir Putin appears to be facing a dilemma as Russian and Ukrainian representatives prepare for direct peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, on Thursday.
Having repeatedly dodged Ukrainian and U.S. calls for a full 30-day ceasefire, the Russian leader instead offered direct talks between the Ukrainian and Russian teams in Istanbul — a proposal President Donald Trump enthusiastically backed.
The offer appeared significant — the talks, if they go ahead, will be the first direct peace negotiations between the two sides since the early weeks of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Zelenskyy, though, decided to up the stakes. “I will be waiting for Putin in [Turkey] on Thursday. Personally,” he wrote in a post on X. “I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses.”
The offer for the two presidents to meet face to face represents a challenge to Putin, who has not met with Zelenskyy since 2019, has repeatedly sought to undermine the Ukrainian president’s legitimacy and suggested it would not be suitable for Moscow to negotiate directly with Kyiv.
“Zelenskyy has put Putin in a situation where no matter what Putin does, he loses,” Oleksandr Merezhko — a member of the Ukrainian parliament representing Zelenskyy’s party — told ABC News. “If Putin doesn’t show up in Istanbul then he loses,” Merezhko added. “The world will see that Putin doesn’t want any negotiations.”
“If Putin doesn’t show up, then imagine how it will look — on one hand the young defiant leader of a heroic country and on the other hand an old dictator, war criminal,” Merezhko added. “Putin cannot afford to look like this. So, the chances that he will show up in Istanbul are slim.”
The Kremlin has so far been silent on whether Putin will meet with Zelenskyy, while reiterating the president’s offer of direct negotiations in Istanbul. “Overall, we remain committed to a serious effort toward a long-term peaceful resolution,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
Konstantin Kosachev — the deputy speaker of Russia’s Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament — reportedly suggested Putin would not attend.
Kosachev told the Rossiya-24 TV channel — as quoted by Russia’s Interfax news agency — that Zelenskyy is trying “to shift the blame to Russia, to say: look, President Putin, whom I invited to Istanbul, refused, did not come. And then there will be all sorts of insinuations about why this happened.”
Oleg Ignatov — the International Crisis Group’s senior Russia analyst — told ABC News it would be “a big surprise” if Putin traveled to Istanbul. “Usually, Putin doesn’t just meet with anybody without preparations,” Ignatov explained.
Ahead of the last meeting between the two leaders in 2019, the Kremlin was preparing “for many months,” he added.
Putin’s offer of direct talks came after top European leaders visited Kyiv last week, expressing their support of Ukraine’s demand for a full 30-day ceasefire during which peace negotiations could resume. Putin has so far not endorsed the proposal.
President Donald Trump appeared to back both the 30-day ceasefire and Putin’s counter-offer of talks in Turkey.
First, European allies said the president endorsed the ceasefire in a phone conversation during their visit to Kyiv.
But Trump then quickly also expressed support for Putin’s offer of talks in Istanbul — an offer interpreted by Ukraine and its European partners as an effort to dodge their proposal. Trump even publicly pressed Zelenskyy to “immediately” agree to the meeting.
After Zelenskyy countered with his offer of a direct meeting with Putin, Trump even suggested he might join. “I’ve got so many meetings, but I was thinking about actually flying over there,” he told reporters at the White House on Monday.
“There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we’ve got to get it done,” Trump said before departing for a planned visit to three Persian Gulf nations across four days. “Don’t underestimate Thursday in Turkey,” Trump added.
Ignatov, though, warned against any expectation of a breakthrough. “The Russians clearly say that they’re interested in keeping military and diplomatic pressure on Ukraine,” he said. “They clearly say that there will be long negotiations and Ukraine should be prepared for this.”
“They’re both throwing the ball to each other,” Ignatov said of Kyiv and Moscow, with Trump watching on, hungry for a peace deal he can sell as a political win.
Merezhko praised Zelenskyy for his diplomatic maneuvers. “Zelenskyy made a genius chess move which has cornered Putin,” he said. “He said. ‘Mr. Trump — you want negotiations? You’ll get it. I’m coming in person.'”
But the lawmaker said Ukrainians remain unsettled by the quick shifts in Trump’s rhetoric and concerns that the president is being influenced by Russia’s false narratives surrounding its invasion of Ukraine.
“It looks as if despite Ukraine agreeing to all Trump’s proposals — even though it’s not in our interests — he is reluctant to impose serious sanctions on Russia, constantly looking for pretext not to do it and to blame Ukraine for not wanting peace,” Merezhko said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with counterparts from France, Germany, Poland, the U.K., Ukraine and the European Union by phone ahead of this week’s planned Istanbul meeting, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Monday.
“The leaders discussed the way forward for a ceasefire and path to peace in Ukraine,” she said.
ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston contributed to this report.
Philipp von Ditfurth/picture alliance via Getty Images
(LONDON) — The European Union and Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on Wednesday after the Trump administration’s metals duties went into effect, broadening a trade war with several of America’s top trading partners.
The U.S. at midnight began imposing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports from all trading partners, with no exceptions or exemptions, the White House said.
Global trade tensions rattled U.S. stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 330 points, or 0.8%, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.25%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ticked up 0.25%.
Officials representing the European Union said member states would place countermeasures on some 26 billion euros, or about $28 billion, worth of U.S. goods. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a statement that the EU “must act to protect consumers and business.”
“Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers,” von der Leyen said. “These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. In Europe and in the United States.”
Canada followed by announcing tariffs on about 29.8 billion Canadian dollars, or about $20.7 billion, in U.S. goods expected to be imported, government officials said. The U.S. imports more steel and aluminum from Canada than any other country.
“Our sole focus is to stand up for Canada interests, Canadian jobs and Canadian workers,” Dominic LeBlanc, minister of Intergovernmental Affairs of Canada, said in a press conference in Ottawa.
The Canadian tariffs will begin at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, LeBlanc said. They were designed to be proportional to the U.S. tariffs, he said.
The European measures were also designed to match the scope of those U.S. tariffs, which the European Union said would be worth about $28 billion. The countermeasures were expected to begin on April 1 and be fully in place by April 13, the commission said.
“In the meantime, we will always remain open to negotiation,” von der Leyen said.
The countermeasures comprise two steps, the first of which is to restore on April 1 a set of previously suspended 2018 and 2020 countermeasures against the U.S. on a range of products.
For step two, member states will then put in place by mid-April new countermeasures targeting about 18 billion euros worth of U.S. goods entering the bloc.
Those new countermeasures will target both industrial and agricultural products, including steel and aluminum, home appliances, wood products, poultry, beef and other food imports, according to a fact sheet released on Wednesday.
Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s trade commissioner, said European officials would continue working with their U.S. counterparts toward a “win-win” outcome, but the “unjustified tariffs on our exports will not go unanswered.”
“We should be making this great relationship stronger, not weaker,” he said in a statement.
ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
